


Nancy Drew and the Case of the Troublesome Trashcan

by lirin



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene, Perry Mason (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 16:12:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8063140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: Nancy Drew and her dad are in California looking at colleges. When Nancy discovers a mystery, her father hires the best Los Angeles lawyer he knows of to keep her out of trouble.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



One never got much time to catch a break, working for Perry Mason. Della Street had just returned with Perry from a delicious lunch celebrating their latest trial victory, and already there was another client awaiting their attention.

“ _Very_ handsome, and his daughter was _so_ polite,” Gertie rhapsodized as she filled them in. “He’s waiting in the law library.”

“Thank you for fitting us in,” the man said as Della let them into the main office. He extended his hand to Perry. “Carson Drew. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Mason.”

“Pleasure to meet you as well. This is my secretary, Miss Street.”

Della nodded to them as she took her usual seat: next to Perry’s desk, steno pad and pencil at the ready.

“To begin with, will I be representing you or your daughter?” Perry asked.

“Hopefully, neither,” Carson replied. “But Nancy’s the one who’s been accused of a crime. As the accuser was probably committing a crime himself at the time, I highly doubt that he will follow up on his accusations, but better safe than sorry. Normally, I would be on hand whenever Nancy needed legal representation, but since I’m not admitted to the bar in California, I sought out the best lawyer I knew of who was.”

“And what exactly is the trouble? You said on the phone that it involved UCLA?”

“Yes, we were making a campus visit as Nancy’s trying to decide what college to attend next year, but she stumbled across a mystery. That happens quite frequently for her,” he added proudly. “She has rather a nose for such things. But it would probably be better if she told you the specifics.”

Della’s pencil flew across the paper as Carson's titian-haired daughter took up the tale. “As part of the campus visit, I was given the opportunity to stay overnight with students in Hershey Hall, and then visit a class and take a campus tour. I spent last night in the dorm, and this morning, I woke up early due to the unfamiliar surroundings. Since the girls I was staying with were still asleep and there was nothing to do, I decided to go for a walk and look around.

“It was early enough that there weren’t very many people out and about,” she continued. “But outside one of the buildings, I observed an odd interaction. One of the cleaning staff carried a trashcan outside and spoke to a young man—probably a student—then emptied the can and took it back inside. But I am almost certain I saw him take some papers from the bottom of the can and hand them to the student while they were speaking. I thought this was odd, so I decided to take a closer look.

“I went around to the front of the building, but it was locked. So I waited until I heard a vacuum running inside so that I wouldn’t be noticed, and slipped in through the door I had seen the cleaner use. I found myself in a corridor of offices, all closed and locked, except one, to which the door was wide open. Looking inside, I saw an empty file folder open on the professor’s desk. It was labelled with tomorrow’s date and the word ‘exam’.

“I was immediately suspicious that some sort of cheating racket was taking place. I looked around for the trashcan I had seen, but it wasn’t in the office. I poked around the building a bit and finally found it in an alcove off the hallway next to a drinking fountain. At first glance, it looked no different from any other trashcan, but when I examined the bottom more closely, I found a hidden compartment with a spring opening, with exam papers concealed inside. I knew somebody had to be told about this, so I took the trashcan as evidence and headed out of the building. Unfortunately, I had become so distracted by looking for evidence that I hadn’t noticed that the vacuuming had stopped.” She paused and sighed; obviously this oversight galled her. “The cleaner must have been in a room nearby, because he saw me leaving and ran up to me. He yelled all sorts of awful things, calling me a thief and saying he was going to have me arrested. I suppose technically, I was stealing the trashcan, but only to preserve evidence! But it didn’t work, because he grabbed the trashcan out of my arms. I didn’t think it would be safe to try to get it back, so instead I ran. He followed me for a few seconds, but turned back before I’d gone very far. He yelled more threats after me. Most were just insulting my appearance and my morality, and could be ignored, but he also said he’d get his ‘friends’ to ‘take care’ of me, which was slightly more concerning. I kept running until I was sure I’d left him far behind, then I headed for the campus cafeteria, where Dad and I were planning to meet for breakfast. I thought I’d just go to the class visit as planned after breakfast, but when I told Dad about the incident, he insisted I needed to stay off campus and get a lawyer.”

Her father cleared his throat. “Yes, I was concerned about the situation since I think she was the only female prospective student visiting this weekend, so it would be too easy for someone to learn her identity from the school records. So we must assume that they know her name as well as her appearance.”

“And they may have her fingerprints on the trashcan,” Perry Mason pointed out.

“Its surface was slightly textured,” Nancy said. “It would be difficult to get fingerprints from.”

“That depends on how big of a cheating ring we’re dealing with, and with how many resources. For example, if they had connections with law enforcement, such fingerprints would be much easier to develop. Although that’s unlikely, it might be advisable not to rule anything out quite yet. You only saw the two people, correct?”

“Yes, the cleaner and the young man he met with outside. He looked like a typical student, although I have no proof that he was.”

“Our first step should be to determine the scope of the cheating ring, and to attempt to identify the individuals you encountered. But by ‘our’, I don’t mean you. Since you’ve been threatened and they might know who you are, you should stay out of the way for a while. I would suggest that Miss Street escort you to a hotel and register there under her name, and you can both stay there for a few days until we’ve determined whether there is continued cause for concern.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Nancy said. “I’m able to take care of myself.”

“We have no idea what we’re dealing with here,” her father argued. “Your next campus visit isn’t until next weekend, so keeping quiet for the next few days won’t affect any of your other plans.”

“Yes, but what about _this_ campus visit?”

“You cancelled that visit when you confronted the cleaner. Which is not necessarily a bad tradeoff, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Carson Drew sighed. “I’m glad you have an eye for mysteries, Nancy, but I just want you to stay safe at the same time.”

The intercom buzzed. “Mr. Mason, your one o’clock appointment is here.”

“Thank you, Gertie,” Perry replied. He stood up from the desk. “If there isn’t anything else, then you should get going. Miss Drew, Miss Street will escort you. Mr. Drew, you should discreetly take care of retrieving your daughter’s things and making her excuses to the campus visit coordinators, and then meet me back here to discuss the investigation further.”

“Dad, I really don’t think—”

“Will you excuse us for a minute?” Mr. Drew said. He pulled his daughter aside.

Perry turned to Della. “Will this be all right with you? I can get Paul to send up one of his female operatives…”

“It’s quite all right,” Della said crisply. “I don’t know her very well, but we’re only going to a hotel; there shouldn’t be any problems. And at least she isn’t accused of murder, like half the people you send me off with.”

“Closer to a third, surely,” Perry chuckled. “Della—I hope you know how much I appreciate being able to depend on you in this sort of situation.”

“That’s my job,” Della assured him. “Now for specifics. Is there somewhere particular you want us to go?”

“You’ll want to be reasonably near the school in case we need anything, but not close enough you’ll run into anybody you shouldn’t. Santa Monica would probably be good; why don’t you find a motel somewhere around there. Call Paul once you’ve registered and let him know where you are. And then just stay put. Miss Drew seems like a nice girl; all we need to do is keep her out of trouble for a few days.”

“I can do that,” Della said.

“You always can,” Perry said. He stood up and turned to the Drews, who seemed to have reached an agreement. “Well?” he asked.

“I guess there’s nothing else for it,” Miss Drew said. She smiled and gave a bubbly laugh. “I was disappointed about missing the rest of my campus visit, but I wouldn’t want my dad to be worried.”

Her father looked at her for a moment, contemplative. “I’m glad you’re agreeing to this, Nancy,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll have everything cleared up in no time.”

“Not without that trashcan,” she pointed out.

“I’ll arrange for a detective to go look for the trashcan right away,” Perry Mason assured her.

“Well, in that case, I have nothing to worry about,” she said, with another giggle. “Miss Street?”

“My car’s right downstairs,” Della said. “Just follow me.”

* * *

Miss Drew was quiet as Della maneuvered them through the busy downtown traffic and onto the new Santa Monica Freeway. Della wished she could read the girl better—her explanation of her encounter and investigations had been crisp and worthy of a professional, but since then she had behaved like a stereotypical carefree coed, smiling and lighthearted.

“We’ll need to stop at the school to get my luggage,” the girl said suddenly.

“That won’t be necessary,” Della said. “You have your purse and I always have a packed overnight bag in my car, so you can just borrow from me tonight. And by tomorrow your dad will probably have retrieved your things. But you’ll have to go without for today, since we can’t go near the school.”

“But my hair dryer!” Nancy wailed. “I can’t go a whole day without it! And what about my cosmetics? All I have in my purse is a lipstick and powder. We have to stop. I’ll just slip in the side; it will only take me a minute.”

Della glanced away from traffic at the girl’s perfect complexion and coiffure. She obviously cared about her appearance, but Della was skeptical that it was her only priority. Besides, Perry had said to stay away. “The motel might have a hair dryer we can borrow,” she assured Nancy. “But we can’t go to the school. Your assailants could be staking out your rooms.”

“Do you think so?” Nancy asked. She didn’t seem as put out at the thought as Della felt she should.

“I hope not,” Della said. “But we can’t take any chances.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Nancy asked. She retrieved a compact from her purse and set to refreshing her already perfect lipstick.

* * *

Less than an hour later, Della was gazing out at the Santa Monica pier from their beachfront motel suite as she waited for Paul Drake to come to the phone. “Yes, I’ll hold,” she told the telephone operator at the detective agency. Tucking the phone against her shoulder, she lifted her overnight bag onto the bed and started going through the contents.

“There’s nothing to do,” Nancy called from the adjoining room. “I’m going to take a bath.”

“Enjoy,” Della called back. A bath was as good a way to keep busy as any, and Della would just as soon not have to find ways to entertain a teenager if she didn’t have to.

“Hello Della,” Paul finally came to the phone. “All settled?”

“Definitely, and nicely so,” Della said. “It’s not every day I get to put a beachfront motel room on my expense account.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Paul said. “We’ll have this case cleared up in no time. I’d put money that you’ll be back at the grindstone by tomorrow morning. Perry and Mr. Drew have already started investigating at the school.”

“Oh, have they found anything?”

“Well, actually I have only bad news to report. They found the alcove with the drinking fountain right away, but no matter how much they examined the trashcan that was in the alcove, they couldn’t find any secret compartments.”

“So someone must have swapped the trashcan Nancy saw for a legitimate one.”

“That’s what I’d do if I were in their shoes,” Paul said. “The problem is, there have to be hundreds of trashcans on that campus, and that’s only if they kept it around. They probably got rid of it as fast as they could once they knew they’d been found out.” He sighed. “But that’s not my problem right now. Anyway, why don’t you give me your room number and all so that I can pass it on to Perry next time he checks in.”

“Right,” Della said. She read Paul the name of the motel and its address and phone number. The water was still running in the other room; Nancy must like her baths full. As she waited for Paul to copy down the address, Della became aware of other noises as well...some sort of quiet thumps. Had Nancy’s assailant caught up with them? It seemed very unlikely that they could have been followed here. Perhaps Nancy had just knocked over a bottle of shampoo? No, the sounds had echoed as if it against a wall, not the floor. “And we’re in room 106,” Della finished rapidly. “Call me later if there’s anything new to report. Goodbye.” She hurried into the other room. “Nancy? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Nancy called from the bathroom. “I’m just getting in the bath now.”

“Okay,” Della called back. “I’ll be working in the other room if you need me.” She glanced around the room before heading back. It was sparser than her own, since Nancy didn’t have luggage. But what about her purse? Had she taken it into the bathroom with her for some reason?

The suspicions Della had been harboring for the last hour abruptly hardened into certainties. Ducking back into her own room, she grabbed her purse in one hand and the room key in the other, and hurried out the door. Because she had been suddenly reminded that all the spy shows said running water was a great way to conceal surreptitious activities, and Della suddenly felt a need to check whether the thumps had been the sound of, say, someone climbing out of a window.

Sure enough, as she rounded the building, a rather disheveled Miss Nancy Drew was sliding down the outer wall of the bathroom. “Just what do you think you’re doing, young lady?” Della snapped, and covered her mouth in surprise. She was pretty sure she had sounded exactly like her mother. Come to think of it, the last time she’d heard her mom use that line, she’d been sneaking out herself. Through the door, though—Della had never been so uncouth as to stoop to crawling through a window. 

Nancy had taken off running at the sound of her voice, and Della hurried after her. “Just where do you think you’re going?” she yelled. Her mother had used that one, too.

At the main avenue, Nancy stopped running and turned to face her, fixing her wind-swept hair as she did. “I just need to find that trashcan,” she said. “We can’t prove anything without the trashcan.”

“It’s not there,” Della told her. “Your father and Mr. Mason have already been. A normal trashcan was substituted in its place.”

“Well, of course, as long as they’re not complete idiots that’s the first thing they’d do,” Nancy said. “That’s why I need to look for it.”

“No, you need to stay out of sight and keep from getting yourself in worse trouble,” Della argued. “The trashcan can take care of itself.”

Nancy didn’t answer. Instead, she stuck her arm up and waved at someone behind Della. Who could a girl from the Midwest know in Santa Monica? Della turned. Oh, right. A taxi.

“You promised you’d stay at the motel,” Della snapped.

“I didn’t promise anything,” Nancy replied. “UCLA, please.”

Della grabbed the door as Nancy reached to close it. “Well, you’re certainly not going without me,” she snapped. “I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on you.” She slid into the backseat of the taxi, not much caring how Nancy had to scramble to keep from being sat on. She stared out the window as the taxi headed away from the beach on Wilshire Boulevard. She was definitely going to regret this.

* * *

“Looks like any other trashcan,” Della remarked. The hallway was empty, but they were extremely aware that hundreds of students were sitting just on the other side of the wall.

“It probably is just any other trashcan,” Nancy replied. “It would have been easiest to just steal one from somewhere else on campus where it wouldn’t be missed right away. But here, look.” She handed Della an envelope out of the pile of trash she had been going through.

“Anybody could have thrown this in here,” Della said. “I don’t see anything special about it.”

“Yes, but not just anybody could have made the handwriting match the handwriting on the papers that I found in the bottom of the other trashcan. This address is connected to the cheating ring, I’m sure of it.”

“Which address? The recipient’s address or the return address?”

“Good point,” Nancy said. “Obviously the recipient is someone around here as well, or the envelope wouldn’t have ended up in the trashcan. But we’ll start at the return address because of the handwriting match.” She placed the rest of the trash back in the trashcan and hurried out to where their taxi was waiting.

“We should call the office first and check in,” Della told her, trailing behind.

“No time!” Nancy said as she entered the taxi. With a sigh, Della followed her.

* * *

Their destination was in a rather rundown neighborhood. Nancy decided to get out a few blocks away and send the taxi away so that they would look less out of place. Still unhappy with the situation but curious despite herself, Della continued to follow her lead.

“Here it is,” Nancy said outside a small bungalow. “Let’s try the garage first before we disturb the occupants.” She headed for the gate into the backyard, where there was a small detached garage. But before she could get there, a man came around the side of the house and spotted them.

“Hey, you!” he yelled. “What are you doing here?”

Nancy ran. The man ran after her. Della decided that it would be wise to run as well.

Five or six blocks away, Della finally stopped to catch her breath. There was no sign of the man who had recognized Nancy; Nancy must have gone a different direction than she had at some point and the man had been more interested in her. Now she had to decide: go back for Nancy or head back to the main street and find a phone to call for backup? If it had been Paul or Perry in danger she wouldn’t have hesitated to go back, but she didn’t know Nancy as well.

A woman in a nearby house opened the door to let her cat out, and Della got an idea that would save time. “Ma’am?” she called, hurrying over. “Excuse me, ma’am, I’m such a silly goose, I managed to get myself lost. May I use your phone?”

“Well, I suppose,” the woman said. “Just come around to the back door and I’ll let you in there.”

The phone was right inside the back door. “Thank you so much,” Della said, dialing Crestview 9-7441. For once, Paul picked up immediately. “Miss Drew insisted on leaving the motel,” she told him without even pausing for a greeting. “What was I supposed to do, sit on her?” she continued over his remonstrations. “Be quiet and listen. We found an address on an envelope in the new trashcan whose handwriting matched some Miss Drew had seen in the original can. We went to the house and were both chased by someone who appeared to recognize her. I’m going back to try to find her, but I’d appreciate some backup.” She gave him the address.

“I’ll go tell Perry and we’ll head right over,” Paul said. “We’ll be there in less than twenty minutes. Wait for us before you do anything.”

“I can’t wait,” Della said. “Miss Drew may be in danger.” She slammed the phone down before Paul could object again.

“Is something wrong?” asked her _ad hoc_ hostess.

“I’m sure it’s going to be all right,” Della said, and scurried out the door.

This time she didn’t run, so as not to attract attention. But she walked very quickly to the alleyway that ran behind the bungalow. Through a picture window, she glimpsed their pursuer waving his arms and arguing with someone. He must have given up his pursuit of Nancy Drew. But where was she? From everything Della had observed of her, she would have assumed that Nancy would immediately come back to investigate further. Della ducked through the bushes at the side of the garage and tried to pull herself up to peek in the window, but was unsuccessful. With a sigh, she settled for poking her head in the side door.

“Nancy?” she exclaimed, shocked. The girl was sitting on the floor of the garage, hands tied behind her back and feet tied together.

“Well, the good news is, I found the trashcan,” Nancy said. Sure enough, there was a trashcan in the far corner of the garage.

Della sighed. “Are you sure that’s it? And we have to get you out of here.”

“Yes, unless they have more than one trashcan with a false bottom. I’ve been working on getting my hands loose; do you have a knife?”

“No, but I have a—someone’s coming!” There was nowhere to hide. Della wondered for a split second whether she could fit in the trashcan, but settled for the old chestnut of standing behind the door as it opened.

It almost worked, too. The man glanced in, saw Nancy still tied up, and was already closing the door again when a second man growled from behind him, “Check the entire room, stupid. Remember, there were two of them.” And that was that.

Della knew a little bit about self-defense, but one of the things she knew was that she was hopelessly outmatched against two men larger than her, especially with her only ally not only tied up but too far away to trip them or anything. So she didn’t attempt to fight back, but allowed herself to be ignominiously tied up and left beside Nancy. This time, she heard the click of a padlock after they left. Not that it mattered much, since the only people who knew they were here were twenty minutes away. Della settled herself against the garage wall to wait.

“What are you doing, scoot over here,” Nancy hissed.

“What?”

“Sit back to back! Honestly, have you never been tied up before?”

“No...no, I actually haven’t.” It wasn’t exactly for lack of trying, though. Perry had been known to drag her into quite a few quasi-legal situations; he just didn’t jump into them quite as headlong as Nancy did. And it was just as likely to be law enforcement as criminals coming after them, so any concerns she had were more in the way of handcuffs than the current scratchy twine.

“It’s funny how few people I meet have. With the number of criminals I’ve run into who tie people up first and ask questions later, I would have thought it would be a slightly more shared experience among the crime-fighting set.”

“The type of criminals Perry and I go after are normally trying to appear law-abiding,” Della said. “Tying people up would damage that—Ouch!” She yelped as the cord around her wrists jerked tighter.

“Shhh, I’m almost done,” Nancy hissed. “There!” Sure enough, the bindings around Della’s hands slithered free all at once. “Now you do me,” Nancy said.

Della squirmed around until she was facing Nancy, so at least she could see what she was doing. The twine was rough and caught at her hands. Every time she tugged at it, it seemed more inclined to split into multiple strands without loosening at all. “I guess I haven’t had enough practice at this,” she grumbled.

“I used to be a lot slower at it,” Nancy said encouragingly. “Untying knots gets easier with experience. There, I think you’ve got it! Let go for a second.” Nancy waved her arms around in a complicated circle, and all of a sudden her hands were free. “See, you did it!”

They both set to work untying their ankles. “Any ideas on how to get out of here?” Della remarked. “It would have been a lot simpler if they hadn’t decided to padlock the door.”

“They wedged the main door shut, so no luck there,” Nancy replied. “If we stand on something, we might be able to get out the window.”

“The trashcan will work for that.”

“No, we need to bring the trashcan with us. If we leave it here, they may destroy it and we’ll lose whatever evidence it contains.”

“Hello down there!” came a muffled call, followed by tapping at the window. They both flinched, startled. Paul Drake was peering through the window.

“Quick, get the trashcan!” Della exclaimed. She slipped off her right shoe and yanked her foot out of the cords. They would just have to stay looped around her other foot for now, since they weren’t impeding her movement. Her nylons were a total loss, though. She promised herself she’d put a new pair on the expense account.

Nancy had ignored her instruction and was piling pieces of scrap lumber under the window instead. With a sigh, Della placed the trashcan below the window and climbed up herself.

“Hello beautiful,” Paul greeted her as she pushed the window open. “Can I give you a boost?” He suited his actions to his words, and pulled her through the window. It was a tight fit, and Della was glad they hadn’t had to climb through it without extramural assistance.

Outside, Perry gave her a hand down. Carson Drew was there as well, crouching down to give Paul a boost to the window. “Thanks,” Della said.

“Are you all right?” Perry asked.

“I’m fine now,” Della said. She bent down to tug the rope off her other ankle, which upon further consideration was probably not the best way of reassuring him.

Paul was handing the infamous trashcan out the window. “Is this it?” he asked. “Seems just like any other trashcan.”

“Nevermind the trashcan; where’s my daughter?” Carson Drew growled from beneath him.

“I’m coming,” Nancy called down. “Just had to get the evidence out first.”

“Have you called the police?” Della asked.

“No, we weren’t sure until we got here that anything illegal had happened,” Perry said. “And I’m not exactly the police department’s favorite person after showing them up a few times recently, so I felt it was unwise to risk a false alarm. Although now, of course, I’m regretting that decision.”

Trashcan and girl detective successfully retrieved, Paul Drake jumped down from Carson’s shoulders. Carson brushed himself off and embraced his daughter.

“Let’s get out of here before they figure out you’re loose, and find a telephone booth to call the police,” said Paul.

His idea resonated with them all, and they hurried to pile into Perry’s Skyliner, which the men had left just around the corner.

“You can drop me off at a phone booth and I’ll wait for the police while the rest of you stay out of it,” Paul suggested.

“That would probably be best,” Perry said. He pulled over to let him out once they reached the main avenue. “We’ll head back to the office. Call me if there’s any developments I need to know about.”

* * *

“How did your investigation at the school go?” Della asked, as they headed down the freeway.

Perry smiled. “We convinced one of the deans to meet with us—fame hath its benefits—and he told us off the record that they’ve been having some real problems with cheating and exam security. Nothing they could prove, though. Hopefully when we give them the trashcan and the address of the house where you were held, that will give them enough leads to knock the investigation wide open.”

“They’ll at least fire the cleaner who spotted you, Nancy, and maybe they’ll be able to figure out who the student you saw was as well,” Carson added.

“They may not have to fire the cleaner if the police catch up to him first,” Perry said. “He’ll probably flee, which in addition to being a possible admission of guilt, could also be taken implicitly to mean that he’s quitting his job.”

“And yet the student, who had more to gain, may get off scot free,” Nancy mused.

“You can’t assume that he had more to gain,” her father said. “We don’t know how much the cleaner was being paid, but presumably it was quite a bit to make it worthwhile for him to risk his job.”

“I want to help the school look into it further,” Nancy said. “There were probably more people in the cheating ring than just the two I saw. At the very least, there was a second man at the house with the cleaner.”

“The police will catch him,” Carson said. “And you have another campus visit up north in just a couple days, so we can’t spend much time in Los Angeles. But if your assailants are caught, you’ll probably be subpoenaed to testify at their trial, so we’ll have to come back to town then, at which point you can inquire about the status of the school’s investigation and offer your assistance.”

* * *

“It was nice to meet you, Nancy!” Della called as the Drews’ rental car sped away from outside their office building. “I hope your visit to Berkley goes better than this one did!”

“You never know, though,” Perry pointed out, holding the door for her as they headed inside. “An inquisitive young lady like that, she might have actually thought this visit went better because something happened. She seems to appreciate mysteries.”

“Almost as much as you do?” Della teased.

“Some mysteries, yes. I can’t say I have much of a taste for mysteries where my secretary ends up in danger, though, so she’s ahead of me on that one.”

Della shivered. “Yes, I’m in no hurry to repeat this experience. I don’t like being tied up.”

“I don’t like you being tied up, either,” Perry said, patting her on the shoulder. “What do you say we buy ourselves a nice steak dinner for a case well solved, and follow that up with a nice boring estate probate case?”

“It’s a deal.”


End file.
